New Treasury!

Have been dealing with these colours so much during the last few days - I had to make an Etsy treasury out of them. I love the items I've found. There are so many gorgeous sellers on Etsy!

Check out this treasury as long as it is alive. Enjoy!!

A New Room for a Young Guy

Back to normal. My brother's son will get a new room in my brother's old house. They asked me for some help with decorating because the footprint is a bit difficult and the budget is low.

The room is 4 x 4 metres (roughly 13' x 13' feet) with a window 2 metres (6.5') wide. The window sits around 80 cm (31.5") above the floor with the heating underneath. It's one of these awful German windows with a 1/3 : 2/3 division, the most useless and ugliest window format you can imagine. The floor still has the lovely original old wooden floor boards, freshly renovated.

The boy wants a new bed, 140 x 200 cm (55" x 78.7" inches) and he wants it to be placed in a corner. Already existing are: a wardrobe 200 cm long (78.7") and 60 cm (23.6") deep with medium brown wooden shutters, a desk 80 cm (31.5") deep and 250 cm (98.4") long. The desk needs to be cut. The boy doesn't need such a huge desk anymore. But of course he needs a place for his PC.

He's got a huge TV (1 metre wide = 39.4") and he wants a comfortable seating place for guests. Because there is not enough space left for a couch we decided to add one comfortable chair with a side table. Additional seating will be on the bed which should be covered with a thick and sturdy bedspread for protection and lots of cushions for additional comfort.

That's the draft I came up with.

Biggest problem was the desk. It needs to be placed in a way that avoids glare on the monitor. In front of the window may have been a possibility but placed against a wall has the additional benefit of adding some shelves above the desk (which I still have and will be glad to give). Cutting off one corner of the desk lets it fit in more smoothly with the 'bedline' and avoids clashing the window sash with the boy's back (note: in Germany most windows open into a room!).

One major problem was (and still is) finding the right colours for this room. My nephew wanted it airy and light but didn't have a special preference. To be honest, he had no idea which colour he wanted.

There is a lot of white in this room, the window frames, the door with its frame, the skirting, the ceiling. To make this fresh white pop out there should be colour around it. And there's a lot of warm wood in slightly different tones, the floor, the wardrobe's shutters, the desk, maybe an additional bookcase. To get together these different warm tones they should be integrated into something neutral or cool.

Then there's the room facing north-east which requires a slightly warmer colour.

Finally we agreed in using a very light grey-sea-green-blue (you know what I mean??) for the walls and for some of the accessories to come to an overall look as shown in my draft. (As I couldn't show the wall colour in the bird's eye view I just coulored a few items to give the overall impression).

Now I have to try to buy this very light grey-sea-green-blue. Wanted to go for Dulux, the only paint available in Germany that comes in very good quality and in a good range of colours. Just to find out yesterday that Dulux no longer is offered in Germany. I can't believe it. Have to go and investigate.

Last Minute Table Decoration

Still looking for a fuss free table decoration?

What about this? Olive twigs and almonds add a slightly Italian touch to a marbled table top. Put tea candles in small pastry tins for a subtle lustre.

As simple as can be. Tea candles in old jam jars and some holly twigs, all scattered with tiny golden stars.

Raiding the cupboards. Small ivies in a baking tin, cookie cutters and tea candles in pastry tins. Nuts and almonds complement a small wooden teddy bear.

 

Survivalist

Heavy frost since Friday afternoon, this morning being -10°C (= +14°F). Just a little bit of snow thus no protection.

Then I found this:

It's 'The Fairy', a well known little rose. I didn't know, the flowers are that hardy. OK, it's standing close to the house - but outside. Unbelievable!

The First Snow!!

OK, just a tiny bit ;-) But it will stay because it has been freezing since a few days now. My garden table looks like being dusted with icing sugar. Nice.

The Garden Table in Winter

When it's too cold for dining outside the garden table is a great place to show some of your decorative items. Instead of getting lost in some dull garden corners or looking out of place somewhere on the ground especially smaller objects benefit from this small, defined place at prominent level.

A bare table looks somewhat inhospitable and boring but can you imagine it brimming with spring bulbs in flower or decorated with moss, peeling bark and rose hips in autumn?

Always on my table, my old hurricane lamp is the only one that deserves its name. No matter what the weather is, even in the heaviest of rain or storm the candle inside keeps burning. Unfortunately I don't know where to get another one. If somebody knows, please, please tell me!

This winter I wanted to do it simple. Just some twigs and broken branches, a bit of laurel and holly and my old concrete globes which have bleached out over the years.

Then I had to cut back a large hydrangea to keep free a garden path in case of heavy snow. The hydrangea flowers were faded but not brown and I didn't have the heart to throw them on the compost heap.

My simple table decoration needed some colour, and so I added these hydrangea flower heads to it. Now it looks opulent and baroque. Completely different to what I wanted – but I like it!

Birdfeeder - revised

My garden birds desperately need a new feeder! The old thing I'm using for 13 years now. No wonder that the roof has got holes and that the whole construction has become very unstable.

I've started already to built a new one - the ultimate bird feeder ;-) That kind of thing you can't buy. Because there's always something wrong with shop bought bird feeders.

But the weather forecast has announced frost and snow. Looking for a fast solution I decided to revise the old bird feeder. Put in some additional screws and covered the roof with a thick plastic sheet stapled underneath.

It looked horrible. Glaring plastic in my garden. OMG! Stapled some twine across the roof and interweaved it with ivy and some laurel.

Looks like a soldier's helmet in a manoeuvre now. But has served it's purpose. Put up yesterday afternoon, this morning flocks of hungry birds have taken possession of it.

(Giving myself a pat on the back ;-))